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Procurement Authority granted powers to charge nominal levies

By D.I. Laary/Mohammed
Abdul Rashid

Accra, March 31, GNA -
The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has been given approval by Parliament to
charge nominal fees on procurement of contracts applications, tender notices
and customised training for procuring entities.

“In acknowledgment of
the authority’s efforts to seek alternative sources of funding for its
operations, Parliament approved the authority’s proposals to generate funds
from some of its activities,” the Chief Executive Officer, of PPA Mr Agyenim
Boateng Adjei told reporters on Friday.

He said the service
charges was not tantamount to the procurement regulatory body going commercial
but represented a token to help it carry out its mandated responsibilities to
ensure sufficient protection of public funds.

The staff are poorly
paid, he said, a situation that did not attract professionals with requisite
expertise into the field to do due diligence in procurement audits.

“If personnel of such
an apex body with an oversight responsibility to supervise the conduct of
procurement within the entire public sector are so poorly paid, I can imagine
the zeal they will muster to diligently carry out their mandate,” he said.

He said lack of
funding and delays of government releases forced the authority to rely on donor
funding for the implementation and performance of critical regulatory functions
with the donors dictating the terms and pace.

Section 22 (4) of the
amendment Act, 2016 Act 914 “mandate procuring entities to post all tender
notices on the Authority`s website at a fee while facilitating fees for
training are also required of procuring entities.

He said a number of
initiatives had been adopted to reposition the authority to better perform its
mandate to ensure value for money with regards to procurement of public goods
and services which account for about 60 per cent of government revenue aside
emoluments.

“The authority is in
the process of establishing two purpose driven operational units and three
operation activities to enhance the credibility of our operations and processes,”
he said.

The units includes due
diligence or value for money, procurement audit, e-government procurement,
procurement planning and expenditure management and contract management.